"Relevant, Contemporary, Ingenious!"
We did it!! The Churches’ Advertising Network (CAN) has ‘scooped’ a top award for last year’s Christmas Questions radio campaign . The campaign was described as “ingenious” by the judges who said the production was “relevant, contemporary and interactive”. We – or rather top agency, Radioville, had made a series of seven, 20 second, adverts posing questions about the meaning of Christmas and they were broadcast during December 2005. The judges praised the advert’s “good, clear and simple style”.
So thanks to everyone involved: colleagues, Adrian Reith and the Radioville team, Simon Mayo who voiced the adverts, Melissa Hawker who worked with the creatives, Jerusalem Productions for supporting us financially, Jeff Bonser and Chistian Enquiry Agency and Simon Jenkins of the Rejesus website…. And of course all the groups and supporters around the country who got begind the campaign. The 2005 adverts, aimed at the 18-25 age group, were played a total of 2039 times on 37 ILR stations including Kiss 100 FM, the Galaxy network, Kerrang, Hallam FM, and Radio City in Liverpool.
It was an honour meeting Prunella Scales (Fawlty Towers, A Question of Attribution etc) who presented the Churches Media Conference and , yes, it was a night of celebration- lots of free champagne, and I was woken up by the cleaner the next morning, looked at my watch and realised I was supposed to have vacated my room an hour earlier! Also came down to earth as realised that we need to get to work very quickly if we are to have a campaign for Christmas 2006. Watch this space!
Ads, images and soundbites
There could be a gong coming our way next week – I refer to the Churches’ Advertising Network (CAN) which I do a bit for in my 'spare time'. Last year’s Christmas campaign on commercial radio has been shortlisted for an award at this year’s Churches’ Media Council annual conference! (
http://www.churchesmediacouncil.org.uk)
… Partly we are in the running because hardly anyone else makes Christian adverts, and in fact in some quarters they are still frowned upon. The jury is still out, quite literally, with an advertising forum chaired by the Bishop of Manchester still not much nearer reaching a conclusion than it was three years ago when it first met. Anyway, despite the limited amount of competition next Tuesday night I’m not writing my winner’s speech just yet. But if you want to hear what was broadcast on 38 commercial stations nearly 3000 times last December go to the CAN website (
http://www.churchads.org.uk/Christmasradio2005.htm).
CAN is also in the news because we’re part of a brand new exhibition at the V&A museum in London which opened this week. It’s all about Che Guevara and his iconic status
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1541_che/.. Back in 1999 we had a hugely controversial poster advert for Easter which depicted Christ in a semi revolutionary pose. The fact that the original iconic picture owed much to an even earlier picture of Christ was slightly overlooked in the ensuing hoo hah and as a result people are still talking about it, and the V&A still displaying it, seven years later.
Meanwhile, one of the things about the Churches’ Media Council conference is the way each presentation is done like a Question Time broadcast with a presenter and a producer, and a panel of experts. The theme next week is Peace and Reconciliation, and there are some big names this year – Time Editor, Robert Thomson, the thinking woman’s foreign correspondent Rageh Omaar (the ‘scud stud’)(being interviewed by the thinking bishops’ communications officer, Liz Jepson), BBC correspondents Mike Wooldridge, John Simpson, entertainment from Faith Brown and Prunella Scales presenting the aforementioned awards – not to mention Janey Lee Grace, and Diana Louise Jordan! Time was when if you wanted someone famous at the conference you had to get Liz Jepson to do an impression. Who will forget her Joanna Lumley in ‘Ab Fab’ opposite Sandra Herbert?!
Anyway, getting beyond the celebrity, the subjects are pretty meaty and I was particularly attracted by Tuesday’s plenary, ‘Does size matter?’ which promises: “In a media where the ‘soundbite’ reigns, can the media be accused of stoking conflict by simplifying messages and opportunities for explanation? This session will also allow some exploration of the different worlds in which commercial radio, advertisers and web designers work. Is there time for faith, balance and ‘big subjects’ in this environment?"
On the panel will be Steve Goddard, of the Ship of Fools website (and one time communications Officer for Manchester Diocese) , ‘our’ Chas Bayfield, Arkwright Advertising and the Churches’ Advertising Network, Andrew Fewster, Leicester Sound and AudioPot who has mixed the latest CAN promo CD, and all chaired by Steve Wright in the Afternoon’s very own Janey Lee Grace.
I guess the debate will only scratch the surface, but with advertising I am amazed how a well timed pithy phrase can capture the imagination and say more than the most polished 20 minute sermon .. which reminds me – back to work..!
